Constructing Standards-Based Rubrics in the Secondary ELA Classroom

My Instruction and Assessment Philosophy

Over the past couple years, I have been reading into standards-based grading and “healthy” grading practices. Along with a variety of blog posts, @TG2Chat/#tg2chat and the #sblchat community, the following resources have assisted me in developing my standards-based assessment (and, in turn, instruction) philosophy:

·         Grading from the Inside Out by Tom Schimmer (@TomSchimmer)

·         On Your Mark by Thomas R. Guskey (@tguskey)

·         Assessment 3.0 by Mark Barnes (@markbarnes19)

·         Standards-Based Learning in Action by Tom Schimmer (@TomSchimmer), Garnet Hillman (@garnet_hillman), and Mandy Stalets (@MandyStalets)

I believe that students must seek learning, not points, and that their grade in my course should be a reflection on that learning. To that end, I allow students to reassess to show mastery, and my workshop approach allows me to coach individual students as they work. I am still averaging scores, but my gradebook this semester will look different than it has in the past. What follows is the progression of my rubrics for writing (which are most of my assessments); I also reviewed these first two steps (analytic and holistic rubrics) last year in this post (and the second half of this post), but I’ve streamlined it here to help show the progression to my current attempt at standards-based scoring. For an overview of various rubrics, I encourage you to read Jennifer Gonzalez’s (@cultofpedagogy) blog post on “Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics.”

Stage 1: Analytic Rubric

Years ago, I crafted a four-point, five-category analytic rubric to use with all writing assessments. The idea was that I could track student growth across categories but also provide one grade for the assessment. This was especially helpful for progress monitoring with our students with IEPs who had writing goals. I knew that I wanted a 4 (out of 4) to show very strong work, and a 3 to show that the student did what was expected (so I started the phrasings for a 3 first). However, 3s across the board on a 20-point rubric would convert to a 75%, which was not what I wanted. So, I created a scale to convert the raw score into a letter grade, which I then input into the gradebook. We use Infinite Campus (@InfiniteCampus), and I was able to create my own categories. Thus, an A was the highest A (100%), an A- was the highest percentage in that category, a B+ was the highest B+, and so on (with an F a 55% rather than one point below a D-, which would have placed it at 69%).

The rubric looked like this:

Stage 2: Holistic Rubric

Last school year, I transitioned to an analytic rubric, inspired by our state end-of-course assessment (the Pennsylvania Keystone Exam in Literature). I was also able to implement ideas and terminology from Alan Sitomer’s (@alansitomer) Mastering Short-Response Writing: Claim It! Cite It! Cement It! (2016). The idea here was to streamline scoring so I could leave more feedback. This rubric looked as follows:

If we were writing narratives or poetry, the bullets would change, but I kept the A-F option (removing the +s and -s since more categories only muddied the waters of scoring; as others—see the books posted above—have more eloquently explained, more categories are not more specific, but they allow more room for teacher error; and really, what does it mean if I know 89% of material and you know 92%? How does that translate to what we actually know and can do?).

I then expanded this rubric to include a section where I could highlight or check off (on Google Docs) where a student was doing well, or a structural/grammatical technique I’d like them to try or focus on next time:

Grade	Analysis Criteria	Your Score
A	·           Claim is clear, complete, and specific. ·           Citations are accurate and relevant to the claim. ·           Claim and citation are clearly and effectively cemented through analysis.
B	·           Claim is partially clear, complete, and specific. ·           Citations are somewhat accurate and relevant to the claim. ·           Claim and citation are cemented through analysis.
C	·           Claim is present but not fully focused. ·           Citations are minimally utilized. ·           Claim and citation are minimally cemented.
D	·           Claim relates minimally to the task. ·           Citations are lacking. ·           Claim and citation are poorly cemented.
F	·           The response is unfocused or contains insufficient information to demonstrate comprehension.
You’re Doing Well Here	Concept	Work to Improve on This
	Claim: ·           An effective claim opens the paragraph and directly addresses what you are writing about. ·           An effective claim does not use general words like “good,” “bad,” or “important.” Claims take a stance or argue a point. ·           Claims can sometimes be strengthened when they begin with an introductory clause (“Although…,” “While…,” etc.)
	Evidence and Citations: ·          If you are analyzing a piece of literature, you should be able to provide word-for-word text from the source in your own writing. ·          Effective evidence matches the argument of your claim (and is a good example of your claim).
	Formatting Quotes: ·           Quotes should be introduced in your writing (they should not be their own sentence). For example, you may write: o    In the story, the character “jumped off the bridge.” ·           If you are including a page number, that appears in parentheses at the end of the quote: o    The character is described as “mischievous” (32).
	Cement and Analysis: ·          True analysis includes what we can call “cement”: How does the quote/evidence/citation attach to your claim? Strong analysis will include at least one (though more may be needed) sentence explaining how that quote proves the claim. ·          A statement like “This proves the claim” is not cement. Strong analysis discusses specific parts of the quote and explores the results of the example: what effect does that evidence have on the characters, story, or understanding?
	Conclusion Sentence: ·          A conclusion sentence should not begin with “This is why…” or “These are…” ·          A strong conclusion sentence explores the effect of the information in the article, or suggests what might happen if another argument was taken. Rather than just being a final sentence, a conclusion should do something new with the information explored in the paragraph (or transition to your next paragraph in a longer essay).
	Listing: ·          Effective lists use a comma after each item, with a coordinating conjunction (often the word “and”) before the last item. o    Example: Nicola was taking English, Earth Science, History, and Pool first semester.
	Compound Sentences: ·          Compound sentences link two full sentences. A comma is added after the first sentence (to replace the period), and then a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) is added. Use compound sentences to mix up your sentence structures. o    Example: I wanted to go to the movies, but my grandmother wouldn’t let me. ·          Avoid comma splices: these are when two sentences are combined only with a comma. To fix these, simply add the coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).
	Introductory Clauses: ·          When beginning your sentence with a subordinating conjunction (After, Although, When, While, Before, Because, If, Since), be sure you finish the opening clause with a comma. The words after the comma should be a full sentence on their own. o    Example: Because I hate clowns, I never go to the circus.
	Appositives: ·          Appositives are when we rename a noun. To do this, a comma is added after the noun, then the noun is renamed or clarified, then another comma is added before the sentence continues. Appositives help clarify the people and things in sentences. o    Example: My teacher, Mr. Emmanuele, is weird.
	Semi-Colons: ·          Semi-colons are used to link to full sentences. They are effectively used when a full sentence is both before and after a semi-colon. However, the second sentence does not need to begin with a capital letter. Semi-colons show that there is some connection between the two sentences, sometimes even a cause-and-effect structure. o    Example: I ate blue taffy; my tongue is now blue. ·          Semi-colons can also be used in lists. If at least one item in the list uses a comma, we can no longer use commas to separate each item. Instead, use semi-colons after each item in the list. o    Example: The Avengers include Iron Man; Bruce Banner, the Hulk; and Captain America.
	Active and Passive Voice: ·          Active voice creates sentences where the person or thing doing the action is very clear. Usually these sentence begin with a noun followed by a verb. o    Example: Monsters made noises in the trees. (This is active because we know that the monsters are the ones making the noise.) ·          Passive voice hides the person doing the action. Usually, we see sentences with the word “was” or “were.” If we can add the goofy phrase “by zombies” at the end of the sentence, there is a good chance the sentence is in passive voice. o    Example: Noises were heard from the trees. (This is passive because we don’t know who is making the noises.)
	Parallel Structure: ·          Parallel structure ensures that all verbs or phrases in the sentence are in the same form, especially in a list. o    Example: The thief ran, dashed, jumped, and careened out of sight. o    Example: The thief ran over the fence, up the wall, across the roof, then down the tree.
	Colons: ·          One use of a colon is to introduce a list. However, a full sentence must appear before a colon in this use. o    Example: I ate way too much for lunch: a sandwich, fries, a bag of chips, and apple, and candy. ·          A second use of colon is to introduce a new big idea. In this construction, a full sentence must appear both before and after the colon. However, the second sentence does not need to begin with a capital letter. Here, the colon is like a spotlight on the second sentence. o    My grandfather always gave me good advice: treat others the way you want to be treated.

This worked rather well last semester, especially as I asked students to write their bi-weekly reflections that they would e-mail home (as they had specific concepts to refer to).

Stage 3 (Today!): Standards-Based Scoring Rubric

To get more in line with a four-point standards-based scoring rubric (1-4), I now have a rubric with A, B, C, and F (what’s a D anyway?). I am not sure how to work a 1-4 into my Infinite Campus gradebook, and I am not comfortable going gradeless (yet?). I used to make small writing assessments 25 points and large writings and tests 50 points. Now that I keep seeing the arbitrariness of numbers in assessment, I plan to reduce my scores to 5 points for more assessments on a standard. If a standard is assessed less often but is still important, I may increase the point value to 10 or 15 points. Since I am still averaging, some standards will be assessment more often (like those regarding textual evidence or writing focus), but others (like vocabulary) will be graded less frequently (but are still important). My list of standards and the process for generating them can be found in this blog post.

The rubric below is for the first written analysis my students are completing this year. I will be assessing them on three standards: literary elements, textual evidence, and focus/organization. I utilized the learning targets (see my previous blog post) to inspire the language for each category.

	Standard 1: Analyzing Literary Elements & Devices: Characterization	Standard 4: Utilizing Evidence & Research	Standard 5: Crafting Focus, Organization, and Style
A	I can identify specific methods of direct and/or indirect characterization from the story to determine a character’s personality.	I can paraphrase, summarize, or use word-for-word examples from a text to support my claim.	I can write a claim, use clear transitions to guide my reader from one idea to the next, and craft a conclusion sentence that extends my claim.
B	I can identify specific methods of direct and/or indirect characterization from the story, but I cannot provide strong examples yet and/or I cannot draw a deeper conclusion about that character’s personality from the examples I provided yet.	I can paraphrase, summarize, or use word-for-word examples from a text to support my claim, but my examples do not strongly support my claim yet.	I can write a claim, but it is not specific enough yet; I can often use transitions to guide my reader from one idea to the next, and I can craft a conclusion sentence, but it may not extend my claim yet.
C	I can generally include examples of characterization from the story, but I do not clearly identify and label the methods of characterization yet and I cannot determine a character’s personality yet.	I can paraphrase, summarize, or use word-for-word examples from a text, but I am not providing more than one example yet and/or the examples I include do not support my claim yet.	I can write a topic sentence, but it is not a strong claim yet; I cannot use transitions yet to guide my reader from one idea to the next, and/or I cannot use  conclusion sentence to extend my claim yet.
F	I cannot provide specific methods of direct and/or indirect characterization from the story to determine a character’s personality yet.	I cannot provide evidence from a text to support my claim yet.	I cannot write a clear claim yet, I do not use transitions yet, and/or I cannot craft a conclusion sentence to extend my claim yet.

Thus, once I score student work, there will be three different grades in our gradebook: one for each standard for this assessment (They will each be labelled “Characterization Analysis,” but will each be attached to a different category; i.e., “Standard 1: Analyzing Literary Elements & Devices,” “Standard 2: Utilizing Evidence & Research,” etc.). Infinite Campus will show a running percentage of each category. Also, when students choose to revise (after being encouraged to revise), we will have specific talking points—students will be provided more specific information on what elements of their work are not yet meeting the standard (rather than the holistic rubric I had previously used). As the semester progresses, I will include screenshots of what my gradebook looks like.

Indeed, this new approach is three analytic rubrics per assessment. The fear is this will be more work to input the grade, but I do not anticipate this will be more work while scoring (they are all categories I would have considered in the past anyway).

I have not included the “Things You’re Doing Well Here” and “Work to Improve on This” style categories. I want to implement this standards-based scoring first, see how it goes, then I may reattached the style/grammar comments.

Moving Forward

The first column of this rubric will change most often for analysis assignments. Our second graded assessment is to rewrite a scene from the student’s self-selected novel into a different point of view (which we began reviewing last week). That will only cover our "Standard 1: Analyzing Literary Elements and Devices," and will not include the other two standards shown above. When students write memoirs, we will utilize "Standard 6: Composing Narratives" along with "Standard 5: Crafting Focus, Organization, and Style, "as well as "Standard 3: Evaluating Text Genre, Form, and Structure." For the memoir, Standard 6 may be worth 10 or 15 points while the other two are worth only 5. Sadly, I am not certain how this will work out. I may have to edit and adjust this semester (we are on intensified block) before making further changes next semester.

I am very much looking forward to categorizing work by standards (I used to just use broad categories of Reading, Writing, Vocabulary, and Speaking). This will guide us in assisting students to reflect on their own work and progress.